Method of making flanged bars or beams



(No Model.)

E. L. CLARK. METHOD OF MAKING FLANGBD BARS 0R BEAMS. No. 451,453. Patented May 5,1891.

wrrussszs mvem'oa UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EDWARD L. CLARK, OF PITTSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA.

METHOD OF MAKING FLANGED BARS OR BEAMS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 451,453, dated May 5, 1891. Application filed January 21, 1891. Serial No- 378,551. (No specimens.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, EDWARD L. CLARK, of

Pittsburg, in the county of Allegheny and- State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Improvement in the Manufacture of Flanged Beams or Bars, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which Figuresl and 2 show, respectively, in cross section a channel-beam and a bar of angleiron as made by the process of manufacture heretofore known. Fig. 3 is a cross-section of a bloom of iron or steel, showing the material in its initial condition. Fig. I is acrosssection of the strip, showing the second step in the manufacture; and Figs. 5 and 6 show in cross-section metal beams made in accordance with my invention.

Heretofore in making such flanged beams as channel-bars and angle-iron it has been the common practice to take a bloom of iron or steel heated to a proper rolling temperature and to pass it through rolls by which it is reduced and its section gradually changed to that of the beam. A disadvantage attending the manufacture of flanged beams in this manner is that it is impossible to make the beam deliver properly from the grooved passes of the rolls without shaping the latter, so that they shall form fillets or tapering portions indicated at b in Figs. 1 and 2. These of course add to the weight of the product, and are not always placed so that they shall correspondingly increase its strength. I have found that if, instead of making the beam by direct reduction from a billet, as described above, it be made by first rolling the metal into the form of a flat strip, and then when the strip is cold (by which I mean at a temperature less than a welding heat, preferably ordinary atmospheric temperature) bending and shaping it by rolling, so that it shall assume the desired flanged form, I can make an article of uniform cross-section which is not only lighter than beams of the same size made by the methods heretofore known, but by reason of the fact that it is shaped when cold is more rigid, and is better adapted for many classes of work.

It is in the mode of manufacture just indicated that my invention consists.

In the accompanying drawings, Fig. 3 shows a bloom or billet of iron or steel, which in the practice of my invention I reduce by rolling to the form of a strip shown in Fig. 4, which strip is of width equal to the combined widths of the several parts of the beam or bar to be made. I take the strip shown in Fig. at and by rolling bend and shape it laterally into a beam of uniform cross-section, the form of a channel-beam being represented in Fig. 5, and that of an angle-beam being represented in Fig. 6.

I claim The method hereinbefore described of making flanged bars or beams, which consists in cold-rolling a strip of iron or steel whose width substantially equals the combined widths of the parts of the article to be made and shaping it thereby to the desired flanged form, substantially as and for the purposes described.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my WV. 13. CORWIN,

THOMAS IV. BAKEWELL. 

